Story of my life?

Up in the Air means to be a critique of how we live now: Social networking is a substitute for intimacy that's just as phony as Bingham's doctrine of emotional self-sufficiency. Natalie's cruel scheme for online firing suggests an updated gag from Chaplin's Modern Times but it's hardly outlandish. (I have a colleague who was fired on a conference call.) But like Juno, Up in the Air conjures a troubling reality and then wishes it away. —J. Hoberman, PTSNBN

Ourobori and more

I. Miracle region:



(From Dzyd Luc)

II. The Hoberboros?

Third Generation's stated thesis is that the Man and the Revolution are a Ouroboros construct—"Capitalism invented terrorism to force the state to protect it better."
—PTSNBN

(From L.G. Thos.)

III. Weekend read: Dzyd Ed in Triple Canopy, on Jeff Krulik and Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Upcoming events

Light posting for a while—but I thought I'd mention (from the Blvr site):

7 NOV 2008 — On Nov. 12, 2008, the Believer will collaborate with the live performance and public radio series Selected Shorts, featuring Broadway and Hollywood actors reading classic and new short fiction.

This evening will feature readings of stories selected and introduced by editors Ed Park and Heidi Julavits. The evening’s readers will include Alec Baldwin and playwright Will Eno.

Believer readers can get discounted tickets by using the code SSP253 when ordering tickets online; by phone to the Symphony Space box office at (212) 864-5400; or in person at the theater, located in Manhattan at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street.

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And here's a Dizzies Press Release for next Monday—sounds amazing:

MODERN POETS
The Adventures of Krazy Kat
Monday, November 10, 6:30 p.m.
Theater 3, 4 West 54 Street

This program reconsiders cartoonist George Herriman's iconic comic strip Krazy Kat, which first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal in 1913. Poet Monica Youn reads her collection of works about Ignatz Mouse, Krazy Kat's antagonist, and J. Hoberman, senior film critic of The Village Voice, discusses Krazy Kat's impact on the comic strip. Meghan O'Rourke, poet, critic, and co-poetry editor of The Paris Review, moderates a discussion. This program is a collaboration between MoMA and The Paris Review.

Hannah and her (mind) twisters

Dizzyhead Hannah writes:

A sensationalist news report and the response of the American public! "Civilization and Its Discontents," maybe, or: "City of Quartz."

I was going to do its complement, a different take on the power of motion pictures and the relationship of such images to American society. Alas, the only camera I have is the one on my laptop, which couldn't handle the number of books involved. It would've been the following:

Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Moving Places."
John McPhee's "Coming into the Country."
Nicholson Baker's "Checkpoint."
Jurgen Habermas's "The Inclusion of the Other."
Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness."
William E. Connelly's "Identity/Difference."
Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."
an ellipsis, and then --
Karl Polanyi's "The Great Transformation."
with an implied colon, i.e., "The Great Transformation" as a chapter heading and what follows as how it is realized --
Andrew Sarris's "The American Cinema."
V.F. Perkins's "Film as Film."
Amos Vogel's "Film as a Subversive Art."
Jack London's "War of the Classes."
J. Hoberman's "The Dream Life."

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Instead, she sends this deliriously compact entry (including one of The Dizzies' favorite poets!):